Bono Still Recuperating as U2 Prepare to Begin Tour

As the singer admitted during a recent New York Times profile piece, he's still in the rehabilitation and recovery process following the rounds of surgery he was forced to undergo to repair the damage from a bike accident last fall. Part of what that means, for now anyway, is the limited use of his left hand.

"This is the hard bit," he said, holding up his hand, "Because I can’t play guitar." Gesturing toward his bandmates, he joked, "They don’t seem to mind."

Bono has kidded in the past about the other members of U2 not exactly being fans of his guitar playing, and as we reported earlier this year, there's a chance he might have to give up the instrument entirely.

"As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again," he wrote in a blog post published at the band's website, joking again that "the band have reminded me that neither they nor western civilization are depending on this."

Adjusting to new physical realities after surgery is always a gradual process, and hopefully Bono's able to get his hand back to normal, whether or not he decides to pick up the guitar again. At the moment, U2 arguably have more pressing concerns, such as reports suggesting soft ticket sales for the U.S. leg of the tour; in the meantime, all he can do is wait. "They say that nerves heal about a millimeter a week," he told the Times. "In about 13 months I should know if it’s coming back."